GOOD NEWS!
The good news has been overflowing lately! Grab a coffee, blanket, and nearest fur baby to relax while you read all the good news here!
3/30/23- Breaking news: The Miami Seaquarium just announced plans that Lolita the orca will be returned to her home waters after spending more than 50 years in the world’s smallest orca tank! - PETA
3/29/30- Nassau County Commissioners ban retail rabbit sale! Nassau County joins Desoto County, Orange County, Pasco County, Hillsborough County, Martin County, Port St Lucie and Key West in their attempt to slow down pet rabbits being unloaded at overwhelmed rescues and dumped outdoors in Florida. – Renee Rivard
3/21/23- Americans are one step closer to being able to buy chicken grown from animal cells, also known as lab-grown meat. Good Meat, the developer of such a chicken product, announced Tuesday that it has received a so-called “no questions” letter from the Food and Drug Administration. That letter states that the administration is satisfied that the product is safe to sell in the United States. The FDA issued a similar letter to another company that makes meat from cultured chicken cells, Upside Foods, in November.- CNN
3/17/23- The jury has found Alicia Santurio and Alexandra Paul NOT GUILTY for rescuing Ethan and Jax from a truck outside of a Foster Farms slaughterhouse. This is a historic victory in the fight for the #RightToRescue. - DXE
3/6/23- Countries agree on historic oceans treaty to protect the high seas https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/04/world/un-oceans-treaty-biodiversity-climate-intl/index.html
3/5/23- After years of campaigning by both PETA and Vinculo Animal, relief is finally on the way for the animals at the Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo (aka “Mayagüez Zoo”). The Puerto Rican government has ordered the permanent closure of the decrepit roadside zoo after years of animal neglect and suffering. Plans for the final placement of all the animals are still being evaluated. -PETA
3/6/23- ALDI Announces Plant-Based Expansion to Over 1,000 Products by End of 2024! Read more here: ALDI Announces Plant-Based Expansion to Over 1,000 Products by End of 2024 - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine
3/3/23 – VICTORY! The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) just stopped all importation into the U.S. of monkeys bound for laboratory experiments, possibly preventing long-tailed macaques from going extinct, and it’s all because of you and your unwavering advocacy for these sensitive beings. – PETA
2/16/23- Thanks to PETA's ongoing efforts to go exotic animal free circuses at the Hernando County Fairgrounds in Brooksville, Florida, they presented an animal free circus for the first time. I spoke to Lina from the Lewis Clark circus and she assured me that her circuses do not torture animals and they are people circuses only. Please join me in emailing and calling, however mailbox always full, the Hernando County Fairgrounds to thank them for this important statement, albeit tacit. Their numbers: 352-796-4552/352.263.5150.Email: info@hernandofairgrounds.com. – The Elephant Lady of Hernando County, Diana Moreton
2/6/23- Successful CEO Josh Fox told the NY Post that he plans to fully finance the electric carriages that will replace cruel horse carriages, and the first carriage is being built RIGHT NOW! Josh says he will gift the first electric carriage to the City at no cost to kickstart the transition and will pay for future carriages. - NYClass
2/4/23- Thanks to you and nearly 20,000 other PETA supporters, Marion, Ohio, radio station WMRN-AM did not use a live groundhog (known as Buckeye Chuck) at its Groundhog Day event this year. This was the first time in over 30 years that the festivities were animal-free! But it has yet to commit to making all its future events animal-free, despite knowing that harassing a groundhog in a stressful, unfamiliar environment is cruel. - PETA
2/3/23- After over a year of working on this campaign, the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners finally passed the retail sales of rabbits ban! Renee Rivard has been doing a phenomenal job leading out in these campaigns, but many FVA members have spoken up at various meetings throughout this time. MANY thanks to all of you who have taken the time to attend either personally or zoom, or sent emails or both. Your efforts TRULY made a difference. THANKS to a team effort this campaign was a success in Pasco County last October, Hillsborough County in February and now the focus will move to Pinellas County! Please let Renee Rivard know if you are interested in helping with the Pinellas County effort. Thanks again! - Myriam Parham
1/31/23 - Chimps Get Court Victory! Over 70 chimpanzees who have been living almost their entire lives in labs may soon be able to spend their remaining years in a sanctuary. A federal judge ruled in December that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) violated the law when it refused to allow certain chimps to be transferred out of labs and sent to the Chimp Haven sanctuary in Louisiana. In her decision, U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby states that the NIH’s stance violates the CHIMP Act, passed in 2000. “Congress intended for the federal sanctuary system to provide lifetime care for chimpanzees that are no longer appropriate for research due to advanced age, infections, or similar circumstance,” she wrote. “The CHIMP Act makes clear that Congress recognized that older and sicker chimpanzees...would enter the federal sanctuary system.”
The NIH announced in 2015 that it would no longer fund chimp research and stated that it had “developed a plan for the retirement of all of the NIH-owned and –supported chimpanzees to Chimp Haven.” Since then, more than 200 chimpanzees have been relocated to the sanctuary. However, the NIH announced in 2019 and 2021 that the remaining chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico and dozens more chimps at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas would not be relocated to Chimp Haven. The agency claimed that it was for their own good because they were too frail or otherwise unsuited for life in a sanctuary. AAVS and others protested this determination.
After repeated appeals to NIH were disregarded, animal protection organizations finally sued the agency to force it to comply with the law, documenting that older chimps certainly can be moved safely. Next, the judge will review additional information and the parties are expected to reach agreement on a practical plan for relocating the chimps. – American Anti-Vivisection Society
1/24/23- CONGRESS BANS THE U.S. SHARK FIN TRADE- President Biden signed into law important, bipartisan ocean conservation legislation as part of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act. This bill includes a ban on the buying and selling of shark fins in the United States. It also provides the U.S. government with more tools to address devastating and destructive practices like illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. - Oceana
1/14/23- Victory! FDA Modernization Act Ends Animal Testing Mandate! Thanks to thousands of In Defense of Animals supporters who spoke out multiple times, we are welcoming a hugely significant step forward for animals in labs with the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 being signed into law. This finally ends an 80-year-old requirement for animal testing in the development of new drugs and biosimilars, which are copies of original medical products. - In Defense of Animals
1/6/23- We did it!! The infamous transport company that hauled thousands of monkeys to their torment and deaths in laboratories is no more. PETA exposed Quebedeaux’s Transport last year after one of its trucks crashed on a Pennsylvania highway and three terrified monkeys escaped. Then we dug into the records and uncovered evidence that the company appears to have illegally trucked hundreds of monkeys across the country. So we went to the feds—repeatedly. The upshot? Quebedeaux’s Transport has sold off its trucks and is out of the cruel animal transportation business. – PETA
1/6/23- the Moolah Shrine Circus has announced that it will no longer feature elephant acts. It had already ended the use of big cats and bears. - PETA
1/2/23- ‘Fuah!’ sure: the vegan foie gras selling out across Spain. The plant-based pate has exceeded the Spanish startup’s expectations as orders fly in. he company laboured over the recipe for more than a year, tweaking it 800 times. After being taste-tested by more than 150 people, the plant-based take on foie gras was deemed ready for market, setting in motion a modest plan to deliver 5,000 units to supermarkets and speciality stores before the holiday season. Within 12 hours of its launch in mid-December, the units had sold out across Spain. The company scrambled to restock – and watched in awe as another 30,000 units flew off shelves. Read more here: ‘Fuah!’ sure: the vegan foie gras selling out across Spain | Veganism | The Guardian